Union Perspectives

It is not very often in the lifetime of a minimum-wage worker that they can make a monetary investment in their future; but in this election the students and wage slaves can invest in Bernie Sanders’ Revolution. For as little as $3 or an average donation of $27, this investment could provide a lifetime pay out in dividends to you and your family—young and old alike, such as single payer healthcare, unions with pensions, Social Security with raises, free education, a $15 an hour minimum wage, prison reform with the elimination of private prisons, legalization of marijuana, card check for unions, no or new or fair trade policies that help U.S. workers as well as other countries and addressing climate change. If these small donors, who now have skin in the game, vote and support Sanders, it will prove to be just as important as any financial contributions. By giving a small amount in money or time, the donor will have contributed to their and their families’ future. This may be their las...

The Democratic Party and the Clintons are worried about Elizabeth Warren and her supporters and the threat she poses toward Wall Street and big banks. Bill and Hillary know that Warren could pose a threat to their chance for a second term if elected in 2016. Warren could take over where Bernie Sanders left off if Sanders does not win the presidency. So Clinton and the Wall Street Democratic Party have to come with a plan to rid themselves of Warren by putting her in the Supreme Court, which is supposed to be a lifetime commitment and would remove her from politics. I would hope that Warren sees this for what it is, and does run in 2020 if Sanders doesn’t win in 2016. The 47 percent need to keep the Revolution alive. We know if Bill Clinton gets a third term through Hillary they will screw it up for the 99 percent and renege on all the promises she has adopted by moving toward Sanders’ policies. The 47 percent need Warren ready to pick up the reins just in case the election is stolen a...

Wall Street wants the clients to keep Wall Street just as it is and for that is Bill Clinton will get another four years as president even though Hillary would be the elected president, assuming she is elected president. She cannot and will not be able to control Bill, and the establishment knows this. They all at Wall Street, corporations and big banks remember what Bill did for them at the detriment of the wage slaves. So why do the wage slaves want Hillary? This includes some of the leadership of the unions. Don’t the union leadership remember NAFTA, and Bill never helped the unions with card check or tightening up the National Labor Relations Board to help keep unions strong. Maybe it was because Hillary set on Walmart’s board of directors. Should we not expect Hillary to support a $15 an hour minimum wage? Also there is the incarceration of black Americans at a higher rate than others. This prison population exploded under Bill’s presidency and now Hillary was getting large sums ...

Why should the top 1 percent get their income from no labor and everyone else should toil like wage slaves to hopefully make ends meet? Capitalism creates two kinds of income. One is derived from physical or mental labor; the other is from ownership of property rights. At this time the what’s left of the middle class gets nearly all of it’s income from labor. Counting Social Security and pensions as deferred wages and salaries. The top 1 percent gets their income from capital gains, dividends and property income, which is also taxed at lower rates than labor income. So to even this up, there should be a way for the wage slaves to reap some non-labor income to offset the inequality of labor and wages. This should be a birth right for everyone. Everyone should get dividends from charging rent for our Commons, by those profiting off our ecosystems, sciences, technologies, legal system, roads, oil reserves, minerals, and more. These Commons are co-owned by everyone at birth, and paid o...

In his April 2, 1925 speech, Eugene V. Debs said, “The capitalist politician tells you how intelligent you are to keep you ignorant. I tell you how ignorant you are to make you desire to be intelligent.” The kernel of this speech offered a telling measure of foresight by Eugene Debs: “This world respects as it is compelled to respect,” Debs declared. “Develop your own capacity for clear thinking. Unorganized, you are helpless, you are held in contempt. Power comes through unity.Organization or stagnation, which will you take? The labor movement must either go forward or backward.” At this time, the unions are in the fight of their lives and must pick a side or just go in on their own, and spend their money on local and state elections--this is where they can do the most with their money. It is easier to elect people who will support Project Labor Agreements on job sites, which are prevailing wage jobs based on union wages for each trade; and also be able to keep the elected official...

The workers of the U.S. and the world have been conditioned by the 1 percent, corporations and Stock Exchange for the past 30 years. It is not that hard to understand. First, the 1 percent took control of the media, newspapers, and television and radio stations. They give grants to educational institutions, which, in turn, they want their people put on the educational boards. Then the 1 percent supports or buys states’ governors who will support the 1 percent’s right wing ideology? Now with these things in place, the 1 percent uses propaganda programs to get the 99 percent to vote against their own interests and blame others for all that goes wrong. By the way, propaganda was invented here in the U.S. in 1913-’14. Then it was copied by the Nazis and refined around 1934, when Hitler and his terrorists blamed the Jews, gypsies, gays, communists, socialists, trade unionists, and Catholics, which brings us to today. We are supposed to be the poster child for democracy and honest election...

In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidency during the Great Depression. People were looking for bold leadership and that’s what’s happening now. Roosevelt’s New Deal was a package of reforms to rescue capitalism from collapse and thwart rising labor militancy from growing into independent working class political action. The Have Nots now have a long needed leader in Bernie Sanders, who has devoted his entire life for the betterment of the working class so it perplexes me as to why union members would support Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Though we can’t blame Clinton for her husband’s policies, such as NAFTA, mainly because she has enough baggage of her own. Unlike her opponent Sanders, Clinton supported the Iraq invasion, Wall Street bailout, authorizing the Patriot Act twice in 2001 and 2006, supports TPP, which is considered worse than NAFTA, offshore drilling that is killing our oceans, and Foreign U.S. Military intervention that is bankrupting our economy. Her top donor...